April Jones murder trial: April murder accused asked girl to house for sleepover, court is told

A recorded police interview with the youngster, who cannot be named because of her age, was shown at Mark Bridger’s trial at Mold Crown Court. “I saw Mark in his car and he offered me to have a sleepover with his daughter at his house.”

The man accused of murdering April Jones asked a 10-year-old girl to “come for a sleepover with his daughter” shortly before he snatched April, a jury has heard.

A recorded police interview with the youngster, who cannot be named because of her age, was shown at Mark Bridger’s trial at Mold Crown Court.

Former slaughterhouse worker Bridger, 47, denies abducting and murdering five-year-old April as she played near her home in Machynlleth, mid-Wales, on the evening of October 1 last year.

In her interview, recorded on video two days after April disappeared, the ten-year-old said she was cycling on the Bryn-Y-Gog estate with a friend when Bridger pulled up alongside her in his car.

She said: “I saw Mark in his car and he offered me to have a sleepover with his daughter at his house.”

Questioned further by the interviewing officer, the girl, wearing a blue school jumper and yellow shirt, said it happened about two hours before April vanished.

She said: “I phoned my mum about fiveish and asked if I could go on a bike ride around Bryn-Y-Gog.

“I stopped on the pavement to speak to my mum and he parked up and spoke to me.

“He put his window down and started talking to me.”

Asked how she reacted, the girl, who said she knew one of Bridger’s children, said: “It was odd that he offered me a sleepover and I answered back and said, well that would be good, and he said, ’that’s sorted then’.”

She told the officer she then cycled off and Bridger drove away and there was no further discussion.

She said she next saw him about five or ten minutes later after she had cycled around the block with her friend.

The girl told the police he had parked up on the estate and was sitting in the driver’s seat of his left-hand drive Land Rover and leaning to one side.

The witness, sitting on a sofa in the police interview room, then demonstrated the leaning and said Bridger had a newspaper across his lap and appeared to be speaking into a walkie talkie.

“I didn’t speak to him. He put his hand up and put his thumb up towards me and I smiled and went on,” she added.

She said it was “odd” that Bridger would ask her to a sleepover as she had never been to a sleepover with any of his children before.

She described seeing April playing nearby with a friend at about the same time.

She said: “April was up the hill. I’m not quite sure if I saw her before or after I saw him.”

Later that night, the girl said she was at home when there was a knock at the door.

“Two boys came to the house and said April had been kidnapped and would we be able to come and help find her,” she said.

April’s body was never found despite the largest search operation ever staged by British police.

The prosecution claims Bridger snatched and murdered the youngster, who had cerebral palsy, in a sexually motivated attack.

The defendant claims he knocked her down in his car by accident and cannot remember what he did with her body because he was drunk.

Elwen Evans QC, for the prosecution, read the statement of Eleanor Holt, deputy head at Machynlleth Junior School, who saw the defendant at a parents' evening hours before April was allegedly snatched.

She said she spoke to Bridger regarding his daughter, who was a pupil at the school.

She said: “I think something gave me the impression that he might have had a couple of drinks due to his manner but I couldn’t be sure of this. I couldn’t smell any alcohol on his breath.”

Another teacher, Sian Calben, said she saw Bridger talking to a teenage girl and two younger girls while he was at the parents’ evening.

She said: “Mark seemed very chatty and full of himself on Monday – as if he wanted to make his presence felt more than usual.”

The court also heard from numerous witnesses who had seen Bridger and his car “to-ing and fro-ing” around the estate around the time that April disappeared.

Carwen Sheen told the jury she saw Bridger carrying a "rolled up black bin bag'' on the morning after April's disappearance.

Carwen Sheen told the jury she saw Bridger carrying a "rolled up black bin bag'' on the morning after April's disappearance.

She was out looking for April with two friends when she saw Bridger in Ceinws, close to where he was living at the time.

The court heard that Bridger was seen on a bank or “landslide” at around 8.42am.

Ms Sheen said she saw Bridger’s car parked in a layby, with the driver’s door open and the engine running.

She said her friend commented: “What’s he doing there?”

She said she saw Bridger at the side of the bank “holding a black bin bag” as he walked back to his car and drove off.

Asked about what she noticed about the bag she said: “It was black and it was rolled up. There was a bit on the end that was hanging down like it hadn’t been tucked in properly.”

Miss Evans then asked the witness if she thought there was something in the bag.

She said: “I think there was something in it. Not very big. But there was something in it.”

The court also heard how later that day Bridger “appeared out of nowhere” to join a 20-strong search team and wished them “luck” around hour before he was arrested on suspicion of abducting April.

Statements from three members of the search team were read to the court.

William Holt said: “It seemed bizarre where he came from as the location we were at was very open with fields around and flat.”

He said Bridger told the group that he had only heard about April’s disappearance at 9.30am and that he had spent the morning looking for her near his home.

Bridger allegedly joined the group at around 2.10pm that day and was arrested around 40 minutes later on the outskirts of Machynlleth.

Keiran Gregory said: “Before leaving he wished us luck in our search. It was not until I saw on Sky News that Mark Bridger had been arrested that it dawned on me how strange his conversation had been on the river bank. He had said he had been searching all night but then said he had not found out until 9.30am the following morning, which did not add up.”

Another searcher, Paul Jellet, said: “I have realised that when we spoke to Mark Bridger by the river his clothing was very clean. It had no mud on it and it didn’t match up with him saying that he had been searching all morning.”

He said everyone who had been searching was muddy as the land was waterlogged.

Richard Smith also described the incident, saying that he remembered Bridger “appeared as if out of nowhere from my right hand side”.

He said Bridger asked the group: “What have you found?” and that he had been looking for April all day.

Mr Smith added: “The only thing that stuck out was that he looked as though he had just got ready to go out. He was clean shaven. I have always known him to have a goatee beard. His hair looked as though it had just been cut. He seemed very clean and tidy for someone who had been searching through the woods.”

The court heard the police were coming to check some clothing the group had found and that Bridger left them before the police arrived.

Bridger told the group he was going to head to the search headquarters at the local leisure centre to get instructions about where he should search and then left the group, the court heard.